Tongeren - Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek

Tongeren, founded 15BC under the name of "Aduatuca Tungrorum", is the oldest town in Belgium. The Romans set up a military camp, that was later abandoned, - but the settlement, that had grown around the camp developed into an important trading center near the Roman road linking Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne) to Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer). Though strongly fortified the Franks sacked the town in 275.

The Roman reign endet when the town got destroyed in 451 probably by the Huns. At that time a seat of a bishop existed here already. This see later moved on to Maastricht (595) and finally to Liege (718). In 881 Tongeren was raided and looted by the Normans. The largely destroyed city was rebuilt in the 10th century.

Tongeren prospered but in 1677 Louis XIV’s troops blew up the city walls and burned the town down. It took the town two centuries to recover from this.

Where the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek stands now, was the bishopric see with Saint Maternus and Saint Servatius, the first bishops of the diocese founded here. In Carolingian times a collegiate convent existed and a pre-Romanesque church was erected, that later got replaced by a Romanesque structure. This church burned down during a war, fought by the prince-bishop of Liège, the Count of Loon, the Duke of Brabant and the French King.

Following the complete demolition of the burnt church, the construction of the large-scale gothic collegiate and town church began in 1240. It was completed in its present form in the 16th century.

The interior walls of the basilica are covered with graffiti. They may date from the time after the French Revolution, when the collegiate convent, that had existed here since Carolingian times, got dissolved. But some seem to be much younger.